1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to authentication and access to data in data stores substantially in real-time, and to service activation, including simplified provisioning and multiple data store authentication.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a user purchasing services associated with a device needs to register with a service provider to provide specific information about the user. The service provider often has a customer service center that assists the user with registration for various services associated with the wireless device. For instance, the customer service center can record personal information about the user in order to provide wireless Internet services. The service provider typically requires billing information from the user in order to identify the user and collect monies from the user for the services being provided.
When the user activates various services, the service provider may program various databases with the user's personal information, as well as information associated with the device the user is using to access the services. This process may be referred to as “provisioning.” Often, the user spends time on the phone with a representative of the service provider in order to provide the information the service provider requires in order to program the various databases. Alternatively, the user may spend time on a device associated with the user in order to provide the requisite information for the provisioning. In exchange for providing the information to the service provider, the user obtains access to certain resources made available by the service provider.
Other common-place factors in the mobile device world make repeated authentication experiences even more inconvenient. The need to access more than one account (e.g., personal and work e-mail), limited time to access an account (e.g., only a few minutes before a lengthy meeting), and the need to have access to new data in near real-time further evidence the difficulties encountered with repeated authentication. Notwithstanding, few users or enterprises are willing to surrender data security (i.e., no user or device authentication wherein anyone could conceivably access the account or data store given knowledge of the existence of that account or data store) for the sake of convenience. As such, there is a need in the art for authenticating access to multiple data stores while maintaining certain security precautions offered by user or device authentication.
Collecting the user's personal information and storing the information in the databases is frequently done in order to maintain security and ensure that each user pays for the resources being requested. However, users often resent the time it takes to register for access to the resources. Further, users may register many times with the same service provider for different resources available via the service provider. Numerous minutes or hours spent entering information required by the service provider may deter users from subscribing to the various resources offered by the service provider. There is, therefore, a need for a system and method for simplified provisioning.